Snippets
by JohnGreenGirl
Summary: Just some drabbles based on Gaara, his siblings, and my OC, Akahanna, done for a friend!
1. Time

001: Time (Gaara/Akahana)

She knows he'll need time. Even though he's improved leaps and bounds in two years, fifteen-year-old Gaara is still intensely feared. Not to mention the fact that after learning to control Shukaku came the time to truly connect with his siblings and learn to get over his past.

If there's one thing she's learned from Sabaku no Gaara, its patience. Akahana will gladly give him all the time that he needs. She just hopes, secretly, that in time, he'll learn to connect with her in a different way, too.


	2. Cherry Blossoms

002: Cherry Blossoms (Gaara/Akahana)

On one of his first missions on a team outside of his siblings, Gaara is sent to Konoha, a town he once tried to destroy. It was late spring, just like it was the last time he was there, and the cherry blossom trees are in full bloom.

Gaara remembers, two long years ago, the first time he'd seen the dizzying whirl of pale pink blossoms. He was sitting far, far away from them and the people they attracted, but Akahana fell under their spell. She gathered the falling blossoms, and with some white wild flowers, twined them into a circlet of sweet smelling prettiness.

He remembers that smell, that cloying sugary sweet smell, and the smile that had come across Hana's face, and lit up her pale green eyes. They don't have cherry blossoms in the desert. The sun is too hot, the wind too raw and fierce for the delicate flowers, so like the pale pink of her skin.

Honestly, he never thought he'd feel this way about someone. Kankuro had explained crushes to him, when he had one on a local Suna girl. Gaara had never told Kankuro, because he didn't quite believe it himself, but he still stows a handful of the fragrant blossoms away in his pouch to give to her when he gets home.


	3. Story

003: Story (Sand Sibs)

Once, when they were very little, Temari read a story to Gaara and Kankuro. She was just five, having learned to read only the previous month. Ro was four and his birthday had just passed; since the quiet, secret celebration, he hadn't let go of his marionette, a remake of one of Suna's lead puppeteers. They never celebrated birthdays in front of Gaara, though their uncle always got Gaara a gift. He was the only one.

One of Gaara's few birthday presents was a teddy bear that he toted everywhere with him and refused to let the staff wash even though its fur was caked with sand and stained with grape juice. Gaara hugged his bear, his only friend, tight to his chest as he sat before Temari beside Kankuro and his puppet.

"Look, Gaara, my puppet can fight your bear!" Kankuro had said, trying as he often did at that young age to get Gaara to play with him. "No. Bear doesn't fight. He's a good boy," and he hugged his bear closer to his chest, his siblings not knowing those words were whispered to him by Shukaku at night. _Good boys don't fight their mother, Gaara, _the Sand's demon would say, using Karura, whom Gaara would never remember but loved from his uncle's stories, as a way to steal Gaara from himself.

"Stop it, I'm going to read to you two!" And so Temari read the only book she knew well, a story about a little boy who loses his puppy and searches all day for him only to find him sitting on his doorstep when he gets home.

During this time, the Fourth Kazekage walked by the room to find his three children—his two 'failures' as he secretly called his older children who had not been able to host Shukaku, and his youngest pride, who thus far was progressing as he should—looking like a normal family, and that would not do.

It would not do at all.


	4. Rain

004: Rain (Sand Sibs)

The relationship between the three siblings was like a rainstorm. And not the peaceful kind, either.

Gaara was the lightning. Deadly, efficient, dangerously beautiful in his execution. As much as Temari would hate to admit it, there was something darkly lovely about her brother's use of sand. Just like lightning, he was capricious and never struck the same place twice.

Thunder belonged to Kankuro, only in reverse. His role often came before Gaara's death strikes. Talking afterward was a waste of breath, but just like thunder announced the lightning, Kankuro announced his baby brother. He had no idea how many times he had uttered, _you don't want to_ or _that isn't a good idea_ before watching sand reduce someone to nothing.

Temari would be the balm of the rain. She was the great pacifier, the only thing that would occasionally help people keep their wits and their lives. She was also the only thing that kept Kankuro from going insane. What's the point of staying outside in the lightning if you don't get some sweet relief from the rain?


	5. Sword

005: Sword (Gaara/Akahana)

The sword was her weapon of choice, but they were nothing alike. To Gaara, Akahana was all hectic blonde curls and soft skin and curved edges. To Gaara, she was nothing like the straight, sleek, cold instrument she wielded.

The people who had the misfortune of being on the other side of her sword would disagree with the young Kazekage hopeful, but that was all just details in his mind.

Though Gaara did not use a sword, Akahana had heard the sharp edges of one in his voice. When used to say things like "I'll kill you," and "I won't stop until everyone is dead," Akahana grew to fear this version of her own weapon. She could only hope that one day she would not be looking down the blade of Gaara's words.

But now the sword is gone from his deep, soft voice, and besides, she's learned that she's set apart from other people in Gaara's life; apart from the siblings he now holds dear.


End file.
